Talk:Tinker/@comment-71.229.74.235-20150211062741
I have a suspicion that tinkers might be the Amyr. Their ability to travel alone and unmolested, despite being known for carrying all kinds of phat loot seems to imply they have some means to defend themselves (as I assume any Amyr would). Rumors of it being 'bad luck' aren't going to stop eveyone, especially consiering how desperate times are during the books. Still, tinkers show up alone on dangerous roads, and you never hear of any getting attacked. Also, where do they come from? Does some random guy just pick up a bag, stuff some random things into it, then hit the road and start trading? Is it hereditary? Where are the tinker families, where do they live? Is there a tinker academy for aspiring tinkers? If I'm not mistaken, nothing about it is ever mentioned. And they've been around *forever*. Ancient and mysterious order with vague roots and unspecified abilities, sounds rather familiar to me. Lastly, there is the timing of their arrivals and the nature of their trades (only one in each book, if I'm not mistaken). In the first encounter, the tinker takes the horse (which is pretty much a liability to Kvothe at that point) and gives Kvothe what he desperately needs (a portable, practical way to pay back Devi, in the form of a lodestone) as well as offering other items, two seemingly-random of which (strawberry wine and rope) Kvothe turns down and later ends up wishing he had. Denna specifically wanted strawberry wine, and Kvothe regretted not having a bottle. Later, he wishes he had rope to try baiting the draccus over the cliff, and also to help get on/off the waystone. It's a pretty strong coincidence, at the very least. On a side note, I have a theory that carrying the lodestone was what allowed Kvothe to move the iron wheel off body heat alone. Like, maybe it amplifies sympathy against iron. I can't remember for sure if he had it on him when he killed the draccus, just food for thought. Similar idea during the second tinker meeting. The tinker takes Kvothes cloak, which would have ended up being useless to him soon anyway, because I'm pretty sure that a shaed kicks the crap out of any other cloak ever. Kvothe asks for a weapon and all the tinker has is a Ramston steel knife. Later on, Kvothe happens to need an incredibly strong knife to do his sympathy (quite possibly no other kind of metal would have been able to slice all the bowstrings). Both meetings, the tinker took something valuable to him but not to Kvothe, and gave things that Kvothe desperately needed that were of approximately equal value. It's like the tinkers are the living incarnation of sympathy, and try to use it to do the most good: by taking things from where they are not needed and bringing them to where they are, all while maintaining a sort of balance of value in it all. Sounds pretty Amyr-like to me.